The Examination of the Ability of Earnings and Cash Flow in Predicting Future Cash Flows: Application to the Tunisian Context

Abstract

This research aims to test the ability of accounting earnings versus cash flows to predict future cash flows in the Tunisian context. The study sample consists of 37 companies listed on the Tunisian financial market for the period 1998-2012. In this study, we provide evidence of the ability of accounting earnings and cash flows to predict cash flow for one and two subsequent years. The results show that for simple models whose variables of prediction is one or two years of delay, it is the operating cash flows that have the most interesting predictive capacity. However, for multi-year models, accounting earnings is most relevant in terms of predictive power of future cash flows.